Yes, that is us with Dooce and MightyGirl!

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Lollipops and Mommy Bloggers… and some pigeons too…

We heard the news late Wednesday night, so we had to scramble. Heather Armstrong, aka Dooce, and Maggie Mason, aka MightyGirl, were coming to town to speak at the VidFest conference and then hang out for a ‘meet and greet’.

Let’s Go…

Since our babies insist on only “the real thing,” we did what any dedicated mommy bloggers would do — we loaded up the minivan (complete with babysitting for while we were off shmoozing) and headed into the city.

We weren’t about to let a little bit of lactation keep us from meeting the mother of mommy blogging.

The girls were thrilled about the outing — especially Olivia. That girl loves to have fun! “Let’s go — Dooce is waiting!”

The Boy Left Behind

Jackson didn’t get to come, since he had school. I left him in the capable hands of my mother.

I mean come on – she raised four kids, runs two ecommerce stores. I think she can handle dropping off and picking up one kindergartener – for one afternoon. Right? Well – she got him to school okay. And, at least she remembered him eventually.

Fortunately, he isn’t a worrier like I am. (I would have been breathing into a paper bag after about fifteen minutes.) He just happily munched on pretzels while watching his teacher clean the classroom. When my mother realized she had forgotten him, she went into panic mode and even forgot the name of his school to phone and let them know she was on her way. But she got a hold of me and then called the school while she raced across town to get him.

(To make up for the trauma, I bought him a copy of Captain Underpants. He screamed with the passion of a toilet-joke loving six year old when I gave it to him that night, but didn’t seem the slightest bit phased that his grandmother had forgotten him at school. Note to self — don’t need to offer underwear-clad cartoons to appease child when forgotten at school. He is just fine.)

Conference Time

Susan went for the entire day of sessions at the VidFest conference. Since she has the tech background, we decided she would attend and, to save money, I only went to the afternoon session with Heather Armstrong and Maggie Mason.

Susan enjoyed all the sessions — especially the keynote address The Economy of ‘Free’ by Chris Anderson the Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine. Between sessions, Susan would come out and nurse Sophia and have a snuggle with Julia.

Meanwhile, I played with the kids — and of course took photos. Julia was obsessed with buying candy. So I had to get her the obligatory sugar fix.

What does a three year old do with a flock of pigeons?
Instinct — Must. Chase. Birds.

I had a delicious time with the kids when I wasn’t in the conference.

I love having all the girls together. It feels like they are all sisters — and I can pretend that I am super mom with twins and a three year old, when really I just have the happy baby who won’t stop smiling.

Dooce and MightyGirl On Stage

Heather and Maggie were entertaining and informative as they spoke about the ideal relationship between content and audience. As they spoke about setting up boundaries, they shared a few examples of ridiculously rude comments left to each of them on their blogs. Both of these blogging rockstars have had to learn to cope with outrageous hate mail. But they’ve both come through laughing.

They sat casually on stage and their relaxed presentation felt a little like we were just hanging out and getting advice from a couple old friends.

Meet the Stars

After the conference was over, it was time to nurse and then head in to the “meet and greet” with Heather and Maggie.

The group was a nice size — not too big — and we didn’t have to wait long to chat with Heather and Maggie. While we waited we visited with the other bloggers there.

So, after meeting the famous “Dooce” in person, what do we have to say?

Well, Heather was fabulous — just as we expected.

She was super cool, nice, down to earth — and funny of course. Her hubby Jon grabbed my Canon 40D and clicked some shots for us. Thanks Jon! How exciting to have photos shot by Jon Armstrong!

Laughing about how to present our faces to the camera, Jon caught Heather cracking up. She laughs as hard and as infectiously as you would imagine.

Maggie Mason is another fun, witty blogger. It was a double scoop treat to get to meet both Heather and Maggie. Maggie was also totally friendly. She mentioned in the conference session that this was her first meet and greet. She seemed sincerely excited to meet her readers and interested in us. Very cool. Susan and I were both really impressed with Maggie.

That is the great thing about getting to meet bloggers in person. If you get a positive feeling off them — like they are actually good, sincere people — it adds that extra connection that keeps you consistently coming back to their blog. (And I am sure it works the other way too. If you met one and they seemed a bit stuck up and disinterested, then I bet it would be easier to skip their blog in your rounds.)

The Take Away Message?

Meeting bloggers face to face is as fun as blogging itself. We highly recommend breaking out of the house and participating in whatever mom blogger events you can.

The day really got us excited for BlogHer. We will be bringing all three of our girls — and Susan’s nanny — and I am sure it will be an exhausting, hysterical, fabulous time.

We can’t wait. Are you going to be there?